Onyebuchi Ezigbo
13 March 2008
Abuja — The National Agency for Science Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) yesterday said it is planning to build a solar panel manufacturing factory in Abuja .
The factory,according to the agency , would engage in local production of solar energy panels to ease the application of solar energy systems across the country.
Director-General of NASENI, Professor Olusegun Adewoye who disclosed this during an inspection visit by the Minister of State for Science and Technology, said the agency also has plans to build a 7.5MW capacity solar power plant at Karshi in Abuja before the end of the year as an intervention effort to improve power supply to the Capital city.
"We are planning to build a solar energy panel manufacturing facility in the country through a partnership venture with the Chinese. Also we are planning to build and commission a solar power generating plant at Karshi in Abuja this year", he said.
He said the power plant would be established through a Public-Private-Partnership, adding that the decision to establish a solar panel plant was due the difficulty in sourcing the facility by solar energy users in the country.
The D-G said although the solar panel would be costing $3m per a month to run, the market value of the power generated by the plant would very much outweigh the overall cost. "This is a power facility that would be costing about $3m every month to run but it has the capacity to sustain its operations. As at last count, all state governments are embracing solar energy and we believe the solar power project would be able to make its own money and survive", he said.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
